Alapuzha, Kerala: A 28-year-old Youth Congress worker
was hacked to death allegedly by CPM workers at Evoor early on Tuesday in Alapuzha
district of Kerala. Following the incident a few people belonging to a left
organisation have been detained, a senior police official said.

"Victim Sunil Kumar was asleep at his home near
Cheppad when he was called out by a group of people around 2 am and hacked to
death. We have taken into custody a few people, belonging to the youth wing of
the CPI-M," a top Alapuzha district police official, who did not wish to
be identified.

The Congress has called for a daylong shutdown in
Cheppad in protest against the crime.

Sources said tension between Congress and CPI-M
supporters in Cheppad area was brewing for the last one month. The murder was a
likely fallout of political rivalry in the area.

State Congress president VM Sudheeran said the party
worker had been brutally killed by the Communist Party of India-Marxist
supporters.

"This gruesome incident is the latest example of
the way the CPI-M is continuing its policy of killing its political
adversaries. It is a shame that the CPI-M is engaging in such heinous acts. The
need of the hour is for the people to come forward to oppose this policy of the
CPI-M," Sudheeran said in a press release here on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, police were looking for other suspects
involved in the crime.